Page 95 - IJPS-7-2

International Journal of
Population Studies Modeling archaeological mortuary assemblages

Since this methodology is capable of correcting for the field and laboratory phases of research. No additional
preservation bias, it could be used to look at other perishable funding was obtained for this portion of the research.
assemblages such as floral and faunal artifacts to gain insight
into the degree of human interaction. Beyond archaeology, Conflict of interest
this statistical methodology could be useful in other fields of There is no conflict of interests to declare.
study (i.e., public health, political science, and retail science)
where known or estimated inherent biases of over or under Author contributions
representation occur, the methodology used in this paper This is a single-authored paper.
could be utilized to make more detailed and informed
comparisons between large groups of individuals by age Ethics approval and consent to participate
cohorts. Care should be taken in establishing estimates as
well as basing conclusions on models that produce estimates This study did not involve any living individuals. All data
that deviate significantly from the original data set, as they are from the archaeological record and no approval by an
then may lead to inaccurate assumptions. Institutional Review Board was needed. Research at the
archaeological site of MTC, which allowed the author to
5. Conclusions conduct this analysis, was done under a permit granted by
the Belize Institute of Archaeology.
This paper examines differences in the distribution of age at
death of two ancient Maya assemblages (MTC, Belize and Consent for publication
CI, Mexico) and what would be expected from a normal
mortality pattern for a horticultural population. A model Not applicable.
life table suggested by Gurven & Kaplan (2007) in their Availability of data
summary of existing data on mortality in such populations
was utilized as a null expectation against which death Data from CI were obtained from previously published
counts by age for each site were compared. data. Data from MTC were obtained through analysis
conducted by the author as part of her dissertation research.
The fact that the Monte Carlo simulations correct for Raw data for how minimum number of individuals was
preservation bias and are significantly different in a variety calculated can be found in the author’s dissertation, which
of ways from the Siler modeled age distributions for MTC can be downloaded at https://digitalrepository.unm.
and CI indicates that these mortuary assemblages probably edu/anth_etds/145/. R Code is available in the author’s
did not form from a normal horticultural population. This dissertation Appendixes C and D. This research was done
suggests that some factor (other than preservation bias) with the permission of the Belize Institute of Archaeology.
contributed to the mortality irregularities observed at
these two sites. References
Acknowledgments Angel, J.L. (1969). The bases of paleodemography. American
Journal of Physical Anthropology, 30:427-437.
Special thanks to the Institute of Archaeology, Dr. Jaime
Awe for the opportunity to work at MTC. The author https://doi.org/10.1002/ajpa.1330300314.
would especially Jack Baker who wrote the R code and gave Bass, B. (1995). Human Osteology: A Laboratory and Field
th
feedback on statistical methodology. The author would like Manual. 4 ed. Missouri Archaeological Society.
to thank Drs. Lawrence Straus, Marisol Cortes-Rincon, Blom, F. (1954). Ossuaries, cremation and secondary burials
Wirt Wills, and Loa Traxler for their critical feedback. among the Maya of Chiapas, Mexico. Journal de la Société
des Américanistes, 43:123-135.
Funding
https://doi.org/10.3406/jsa.1954.2418
Field research and laboratory analysis of MTC skeletal Bocquet-Appel, J.P., & Masset, C. (1982). A farewell to
material was made possible through generous funding paleodemography. Journal of Human Evolution, 11:321-333.
by the Cotsen Family Foundation, Applebaum Family
Foundation, University of New Mexico Graduate https://doi.org/10.1016/S0047-2484(82)80023-7.
Professional Student Association, University of New Brady, J.E. (1989). An Investigation of Maya Ritual Cave use with
Mexico’s Anthropology Department, the Southwestern Special Reference to Naj Tunich, Peten, Guatemala [Thesis].
Region of the National Speleological Society, and the University of California, Los Angeles.
California Doctoral Incentive Program. This research Brass, W. (1960). The graduation of fertility distributions by
could not have been possible without the data acquired in polynomial functions. Population Studies, 14(2):148-162.

Volume 7 Issue 2 (2021) 89 https://doi.org/10.36922/ijps.v7i2.300